


Coffee Shop

by MagicInHerMadness



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, First Meeting, as much as i love coffee i've never written a coffee shop au but hooooo boy i'm hooked, being trash is apparently quite the motivator, i finished a 10 research paper in six hours to write this, i officially need ALL the generic aus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 07:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8835337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicInHerMadness/pseuds/MagicInHerMadness
Summary: Mike's the surly owner of a coffee shop who hires Ginny as a favor. He doesn't expect her sunshiny attitude to brighten his day.





	

Mike's frown lines are deeper than usual as he walks into his coffee shop. He remembers when it was his favorite place to be, when the crowds of nine-to-fivers and twenty-somethings brought him joy. Now everything is just one mild annoyance after another from open to close. He grunts a greeting to the maintenance man Blip as he passes. Blip smirks at his best friend. He remembers the former Mike too, the one Rachel killed with the click of her heels as she walked out of his life.

He follows his boss to the back office and watches as he plops into a chair. Blip leans against the doorframe and pulls a towel out of the pocket of his coveralls to wipe his hands clean of gunk from the espresso machine. "New girl starts today."

Mike looks up, suddenly remembering that he'd hired a girl, a local culinary student from Berkley, to run the front so he could spend a little less time with the customers. Very few of them found his curmudgeonly attitude endearing. Rachel had always been much better, but she was gone and they were stuck with him. Sure they could go to Starbucks, but Starbucks didn't have his artisanal blends or the hip feeling they got from going somewhere so "low key." Mike's too old to figure out what that menas but it keeps the business rolling like clockwork so he doesn't really inquire. "Oh yeah. What time is she coming?"

"Should be any minute." Blip smirks at Mike frowning at invoices. "You know, my mother used to always tell me not to make faces because they'd stick. Looking at your frown, I guess she was right."

Mike sighs, looks up at Blip with a smirk. "What?"

"I just can't remember the last time I saw you happy."

Mike snorts. "Oh I'm happy. Euphoric. Ecstatic."

Blip rolls his eyes. "Well there are customers waiting for your sunshine so let's go."

X

Mike's on the front for five minutes before Blip takes over. He doesn't know much about the coffee, but his attitude's much better than his friends so the customers don't mind. The doorbell jingles and he looks up in time to see a dissheveled girl tumble in, a backpack in her thin shoulders. She practically bounces to the counter and exhales. "Sorry I'm late. My bike had a flat."

This catches Mike's attention and he turns away from the espresso machine to look at his new employee. She was a friend of Blip's wife Evelyn and he had agreed to give her the job to help her make ends meet with her post-grad stipend. She's a tall slight girl with nut brown skin and a mass of springy curls framing her face. Mike almost doesn't get to the rest of her because he's stuck on that face. Fathomless brown eyes, a bump of a nose, full lips stretched over a toothy grin, and dimples deep enough to hide in. She's wearing a navy Berkley t-shirt and loose jeans. He remembers that Evelyn told him she was nearly done with culinary school, but he's sure he misheard. She can't be any older than 18. Twenty at the oldest. Her eyes flicker to him and she grins wider, steps up to the counter and reaches over it to offer him her thin hand. "Ginny Baker. Thanks for helping me out."

It's an odd feeling, smiling genuinely as he takes her hand. "No problem. Come on back."

Blip watches with an amused smile, unsure of what to make of the grin splitting Mike's face. It almost seems unnatural, like watching an animal walk on its hind legs. Ginny rounds the counter and tosses him a smile. "Hey Blip."

"Hey Gin," he replies then goes back to taking orders.

Ginny follows Mike to the back office and he rounds his cluttered desk to fish a wrinkled apron out of a bottom drawer. He hands it over then leans on the desk. "Okay rookie, here's the house rules. First, don't be late. First day's a trial run so I'll let that go. I fine you five dollars for every ten minutes you're late. Same with broken cups. Any tips you get are yours after you pay your fines. Last, and most important, I am not a people person so if I have to talk to people because you screwed up, I'm gonna show you my bad side. Since this is my good side you can only imagine what anrgy Mike is like. Got it?"

He looks up at her young face and she nods then slips on the apron, ties it around her thin waist. It's then that he notices the shortness of her shirt, the sliver of smooth brown skin visible between its hem and the waistband of her jeans. That won't work. Not at all.

"I don't really care what you wear but keep your belly button to yourself and," he nods at her ugly leather sandals, "you're probably gonna wanna wear closed-toed shoes. Coffee's usually pretty hot."

She nods again, twists her hair into a bun that makes her t-shirt hike up even more and Mike brushes past her to leave the office before hellfire engulfs him. A few minutes later, she bounds out of the office. Mike notices that she's put on socks under her sandals. She explains, "I had some socks in my backpack."

He nods, gestures to the register. "Have at it."

She walks over, takes Blip's spot. He gives her shoulders a squeeze, smiles at the elderly man at the counter. "Mr. Luongo, this is Ginny. She's the newest member of our family. Be nice so she'll stay."

Al grins at the pretty girl. "I can probably manage that long as she's nicer than your friend."

He nods at Mike who smirks. "I'm nice. Just not to you, old man."

Al snorts then looks back at Ginny. "Don't try to give me anything fancy. Black coffee. No foam. No cinammon. No frills. Just some sugar and a spoon."

Ginny nods. "Black coffee. I can do that."

She can't, Mike realizes as he watches her stare at the coffee maker in confusion. She turns it off then on again, and frowns when it doesn't start. He walks over, takes the tray out and puts a filter in then frowns at her. "Rookie, explain to me why you can't make coffee."

"I have a Keurig," she explains then gives him a snotty smile. "And it's Ginny."

"I like rookie better," he replies as he opens a bag of French Roast and empties it into the filter. He puts it back in the coffee maker and hits the START button. He smirks as he waves his hand in a flourish before her face. "Wa-la! It's magic."

He's not sure what she'll say, but he doesn't expect the bubbling laugh that erupts from her mouth and crinkles her nose. His first thought is that she's got to go before she manages to cure him of his surliness with her perpetual sunshine. But he needs the help so instead he secludes himself in his office, leaving Blip to break her in. It's a good plan that keeps them separate for most of the day until around three when Blip appears in the doorway yet again.

"She's gonna burn this place down," he asserts.

Mike looks up at him with raised eyebrows. "She's a culinary student. How can she not make coffee?"

Blip shrugs. "I'm not saying it makes any sense. I'm just saying the machines hate her and she hates them back."

Mike pushes out of his chair and sighs as he walks to the front to see what's going on. Ginny's putting croissants in the tiny oven at the end of the counter, her face red as she turns back to the frowning man at the front counter. Mike walks over and levels him with a half smile. "Oscar. What's the problem?"

Oscar shakes his head. "New girl can't work the espresso machine."

Mike looks back at Ginny. She's managed to figure out the steamer and has the small milk carafe under it. She sets it aside then goes back to fiddling with the espresso machine, finally figuring out the right combination of buttons to get it to dispense the shots for Oscar's daily macchiato. He smiles at her tiny delighted shriek as she combines the ingredients in the cup then adds the ice. She presents it to Oscar with a smile, her face a little flushed. "I'm so sorry it took so long."

Oscar grins back as he digs in his pocket. He hands over a five-dollar-bill. "For a smile that beautiful, you can still have your tip."

Her smile broadens and Mike looks down at his shoes, shakes his head as she replies, "Thank you! Bye!"

Oscar turns and waves again as he heads out the door and Ginny waves back then gets started cleaning up her series of small messes across the counter top. The oven dings and she takes the tray of croissants out of the oven. Mike watches her slather them with butter then arrange them on their display platter. Next she starts on the cookies, arranging them into a pyramid on their round tray. There's something enchanting about watching her work, a stray curl flopping onto her forehead as she turns to look at him. "You know, I can make these in-house."

"Really?"

She nods. "I passed pastry certification with flying colors."

"I'll think about it." He's not sure he can let her do it, if only because it means she'll be around him even more and he's not sure he likes her effect on his perpetual bad mood. Six good months of being an asshole and she's managed to ruin it in a day with her perpetual grin. He leans against the counter, thankful for the lull in business so he can watch her work. Her jeans slip on her slim hips and she stops to tug them up but he glimpses a tattoo on her hip that he can't see enough of to identify before it disappears. She wipes down the counter then pulls on gloves and goes to work twisting pretzels on a wax-paper lined tray.

She finds an easy rhythm, twisting each string of dough and slathering it with butter. She hums an awful rendition of what he surmises is "The Way We Were" sheerly because he's seen the movie more times than he cares to admit. Mike's not sure what to make of her tuneless humming but stops listening long enough to digest the fact that he's apparently hired Mary Poppins. The doorbell jingles and cuts off her song. She takes off her gloves and turns around to stand in front of the register. Mike realizes he's been staring and quickly retreats to the back, passing Blip on the way to the office. Blip turns and follows, taking up his favorite spot in the doorway of the office. "So what was that?"

Mie looks up at him with a frown. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"My clothes zip on and off, not my head so spare me, Mike. You've got a thing for Mary Poppins."

Mike laughs if only because he and Blip came up with the same joke. He shakes his head. "I was just making sure she didn't burn the coffee."

Blip snorts. "You don't give a damn about the coffee and you know it."

Mike leans back in his chair, pulls out his phone. "We're not having this talk, Sanders."

"No that would be too mature. Why don't you just go out there and pull her hair then run away?"

Mike smirks. "I was more of a pusher than a hair-puller but thanks for the tip."

Blip snorts again as he walks away. Mike waits until he's sure Blip is gone before he returns to the front. Ginny's alone again, sweeping in front of the counter. She looks up at his footsteps. "You know what we need? Maybe it's too early in my career here to make suggestions, but we should get some fresh fruit. The pastries are great but the fruit would be a nice touch. And we can make smoothies!"

Mike smirks. "Why don't you master the espresso machine before we add new stuff, rookie."

She frowns. "I don't even like espresso. And with good reason because it apparently doesn't like me back."

Mike laughs for what feels like the first time in forever. He beckons her back around the counter. "Come here and let me show you the ropes, rookie."

She rounds the counter and he points to the machine. "Look, it's really simple. Choose the size of the cup, how many shots you need, then hit start."

"Size of the cup, number of shots, start." She nods and repeats the process. It only takes her a few tries to get it right and make the machine work on demand instead of by sheer luck of button combinations. She gives another adorable little shriek, bouncing in her ugly sandals as she grins. He spends the rest of the day working with her, teaching her how to make drinks, and learns in the process that she's actual sunshine as she charms everyone who comes in. She messes up every other drink but hardly anyone seems to notice as she chats and grins, manages to sell almost everyone a pastry. She's even better than Rachel who Mike personally believes was born for customer service. There's just something to her smile and askew bun that makes everyone forgive her instantly. She makes him laugh more than once with her chipper disposition and terrible humming.

When they close up, she gets to work cleaning, taking off her apron to sweep the lobby. She begins her humming again and Mike looks up from the register to find Blip staring at her in horror. Their eyes connect and he only shrugs. Blip smirks, goes back to straightening out chairs. She seems to notice she's being watched and looks at Blip. "I was humming, wasn't I?"

"Terribly," Blip answers with a smile.

She laughs. "Sorry. It's a habit. I drive the kitchen crazy."

"I can imagine," he replies giving Mike a pointed look that Mike deliberately avoids as he heads out the front door.

She glances up at Mike and he diberately avoids her gaze too, focuses on counting the money. She goes back to sweeping and he resumes watching her. The humming resumes, a loping "bum bum bum bum" that precedes singing that makes Mike completely stop counting. "Heart and soul/ I fell in love with you/ Heart and soul/ The way a fool would do/ Madly/ Because you held me tight/ And stole a kiss in the night..."

It's one thing to hire Mary Poppins. It's another to want to kiss the incisors out of her mouth, but there he is. Wanting. The singing thankfully trails off as she finishes sweeping then slides past him to the back to get her backpack. She returns a moment later with it bouncing on her thin shoulders then heads for the front door. She pushes it open then turns back to him. "Goodnight. See you tomorrow."

Mike waves and she's out the door. He watches her unlock her bike and quickly hurries to her before he loses his nerve. "Ginny!"

She's half on the bike but pauses and stands upright as she looks at him. "Ginny? That's a first."

He smiles shyly, stuffs his hands in his pockets, blurts, "Do you live around here? Can I walk you home?"

She looks surprised for a brief moment before she smiles. "Yeah it's just a few blocks away."

"Okay," he replies as he walks over.

"Okay," she says back.

When they reach the corner, Mike sheepishly reaches for her hand and a smile spreads across his face when she intertwines her fingers with his. "You suck as a barista. Did you know that?"

She laughs, her head falling back as they reach the corner. "I know."

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I work for comments


End file.
